A few months ago, I started thinking about a simple problem.
How can someone know if an online seller is trustworthy before sending money?
In Bangladesh, people buy many things online. Facebook pages, websites, small online shops, and even personal sellers are everywhere.
But there is one common problem.
You can see a nice product.
You can see good reviews.
You can talk to the seller.
Everything may look normal.
Then you send the money.
And suddenly, the seller disappears.
No product.
No refund.
No reply.
I faced this problem myself. That experience made me think that there should be a simple place where people can check a seller or scammer before paying.
That idea became Trust Check BD.
The Problem
Online scams are not always easy to spot.
A scammer does not always look like a scammer.
They can have:
- A nice Facebook page
- Good-looking product photos
- Fake reviews
- A professional logo
- A normal-looking website
- A friendly person answering messages
This makes the problem harder.
Someone can spend hours checking a seller and still not know if the seller is safe.
There are also many people who get scammed but do not know where to report it.
So I wanted to solve two problems:
Can people check before they pay?
and
Can people report a scam after it happens?
These two questions became the main idea behind Trust Check BD.
The Idea Behind Trust Check BD
The idea was actually very simple.
I wanted to build a place where people could search for information about a seller before making a payment.
For example, someone receives a phone number from an online seller.
Instead of sending money immediately, they can search that number on Trust Check BD.
If other people have already reported that number, the user can see those reports.
The same idea can work for other information too.
Users can search things like:
- Phone numbers
- bKash or Nagad numbers
- Websites
- Facebook pages
The goal is not to tell people, "This person is 100% a scammer."
The goal is to give people more information before they make a decision.
How the Platform Works
The basic flow is simple.
1. Someone gets a seller's information
Maybe they find a product on Facebook.
The seller gives them a phone number or payment number.
2. They search before paying
They can search that information on Trust Check BD.
If there are public scam reports connected to it, they can read them.
3. Someone can report a scam
If a person has already been scammed, they can submit a report.
The report can include information such as:
- Scammer details
- Transaction information
- Screenshots
- Other useful evidence
4. Other people can learn from the report
This is the part I care about most.
One person's bad experience can help another person avoid the same problem.
That creates a simple cycle:
Someone gets scammed → reports it → someone else finds the report → avoids the scam.
Building the First Version
As a software developer, I wanted to keep the first version simple.
I used technologies that I already work with in my daily development work.
The main stack includes:
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
- Node.js
- Prisma
- MongoDB
I also focused a lot on the search experience.
The search box is one of the most important parts of the product.
If someone is about to send money, they should not have to go through ten different pages.
They should be able to search quickly and understand the result.
So the product idea became:
Search first. Pay later.
One of the Hardest Parts: Scam Data
Building the UI was not the hardest part.
The harder question was:
How should scam reports be stored and connected?
Imagine 10 different people report the same scammer.
Some may use a phone number.
Someone else may mention a Facebook page.
Another person may upload a screenshot.
Another person may write a different name.
The system needs to handle these reports carefully.
I had to think about things like:
- How to structure a report
- How to connect related information
- How to avoid duplicate information
- How to make reports easy to search
- How to keep public information useful
- How to handle false or misleading reports
These are not problems that can be solved by simply adding another button to the website.
They need careful product and database design.
Trust Is More Important Than Just Technology
This project also changed how I think about building products.
When you build a normal website, a bug may break a feature.
But when you build something related to trust, the problem can be much bigger.
A wrong report can hurt a real person or business.
At the same time, ignoring a real scam report can put another person at risk.
So I learned that a scam reporting platform cannot simply collect as much data as possible.
The data needs to be handled carefully.
The platform should help people make better decisions, not make decisions for them.
Making It Easy for Everyone
Another important goal was simplicity.
Not everyone using the platform is a developer.
In fact, most users will probably have no technical background at all.
So I try to ask myself a simple question when building a feature:
Could a 10-year-old understand what to do here?
If the answer is no, the experience probably needs more work.
This is especially important for a product like Trust Check BD.
Someone may be using it while they are about to make a payment.
They should not need to understand how the system works.
They just need to know:
What should I search?
What does this result mean?
What should I do next?
What I Learned From Building It
Building Trust Check BD has taught me many things outside of coding.
The biggest lesson is that solving a real problem is harder than building a feature.
As developers, it is easy to think about:
"Which technology should I use?"
But users usually do not care about that.
They care about:
"Can this help me?"
That changed how I look at product development.
I now spend more time thinking about the problem before thinking about the code.
I also learned that a small product can have a big purpose.
Trust Check BD is not trying to solve every problem on the internet.
It is focused on one simple problem:
Help people check before they pay, and give scam victims a place to report what happened.
What Comes Next?
Trust Check BD is still growing.
There are many things I want to improve.
Better search.
Better report pages.
Better ways to understand scam information.
Better tools for people who want to stay safe online.
There is also a bigger idea behind the project.
If more people report scams, more information becomes available.
If more information becomes available, people can make better decisions.
And if people check before paying, some scams may never happen.
That is the long-term goal.
Final Thoughts
I started Trust Check BD because I saw a problem that many people face.
Someone finds a product online.
They trust the seller.
They send the money.
Then something goes wrong.
I wanted to build something simple that could help people pause for a moment before making that payment.
It is a small step, but I believe small steps can make the internet safer.
If you are buying something online in Bangladesh, take a few seconds to search before you pay.
And if you have already faced a scam, sharing your experience may help someone else avoid the same problem.
Search before you pay. Report a scam when it happens.
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